1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing device, a portable information terminal and a non-transitory computer readable recording medium. The present invention more specifically relates to a technique of operating the information processing device by remote control via a portable information terminal.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional information processing devices called as MFPs (Multi-Function Peripherals) including print and/or scan function are generally used in a condition of network connection and are allowed to transmit and receive a variety of data such as document data. By way of example, the information processing device is capable of sending image data generated by reading a document with scan function to a servicer over a network.
There are conventional techniques of building up cooperation among the aforementioned information processing device and other devices over the network. These known techniques are introduced for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2010-074682 A (hereafter, document 1), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2006-059083 A (hereafter, document 2) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2004-259070 A (hereafter, document 3).
According to the technique introduced in the document 1, an image processing system including a personal computer (hereafter, PC) and a MFP connected with each other to allow communication therebetween over a network has a mode to send to the PC from the MFP image data generated through reading operation on the MFP. Moreover, according to the technique introduced in the document 1, when the mode is selected on the image processing system, image data to recreate a screen displayed on a display device of the PC with a display device of the MFP is sent to the MFP from the PC, and the screen created on a basis of the screen data received from the PC is displayed on the display device of the MFP as a remote screen. Location data indicating a location given by a user through the remote screen is then sent to the PC together with scan data generated through reading operation on the MFP. The PC detects a folder displayed at the given location with the received location data, and stores the scan data received from the MFP in the detected folder.
According to the technique introduced in the document 2, a system includes an image processing device and a computer terminal connected with each other to allow communication therebetween over a network. In order to operate the computer terminal by remote control via the image processing device, the image processing device receives details of a screen displayed on the computer terminal and displays the screen with its display part. The image processing device then sends operation information showing operation input on the screen to the computer terminal.
According to the technique introduced in the document 3, a digital composite device which is capable of establishing communication with a client device including a PC, a PDA or a cell-phone over a network receives an operating condition display request from the client device. In response to receiving the request, the digital composite device creates HTML data corresponding to a model of the client device which is a sender of the operating condition display request, and sends the created HTML data to the client device.
In recent years, portable information terminals such as tablet terminals or smart phones have become widely popular. This type of portable information terminal includes a function allowing radio connection to a network such as LAN (Local Area Network) or WAN (Wide Area Network), or public phone lines. Besides the function, the portable information terminal includes a function allowing a short distance radio communication such as NFC (Near Field Communication) with a specific device.
In these days, several companies have launched cloud services providing a storage on which a variety of data such as document data can be stored over an internet. This cloud service gives a user access to the service to upload or download data any time, anywhere with the internet access, resulting in user friendliness. Especially in these days, along with the popularization of the portable information terminals such as tablet terminals or smart phones, there are increasing cases using the cloud service via the portable information terminals. It is expected that more users often use the portable information terminals in near future, to obtain image data generated by reading operation on the information processing device, then uploading the image data to the cloud service with the portable information terminals, or to make printed outputs produced with print function on the information processing device by forwarding the image data downloaded from the cloud service with the portable information terminals to the information processing device.
In view of system user friendliness, it is required that the image data generated with scan function on the information processing device is directly uploaded to the cloud service from the information processing device, or the image data stored with the cloud service is directly downloaded to the information processing device.
The information processing device placed at a place such as an office is normally shared and used by multiple users. The information processing device generally does not store therein information concerning the cloud service which is usually used by an individual user, or authentication information such as a user ID and a password to log into a user account to access the cloud service.
In those cases, when the user operates the information processing device to directly upload data to the cloud service, he or she is required to input information such as an address to access the cloud service and the authentication information such as the user ID and the password on the information processing device, and log into the cloud service via the information processing device by manual. The user needs to go through this operation by manual every time he or she accesses the cloud service via the information processing device, resulting in bothersome operation.
In order to improve the operability when accessing the cloud service via the information processing device, the information concerning the cloud service used by each user or the authentication information for each user to log into the cloud service, for example, may be registered in advance with the information processing device.
A plurality of information processing devices, however, is generally installed at the conventional offices. It is also bothersome to register in advance all the information concerning the cloud service used by all the users with every information processing device. Each company provides different services over the internet for the cloud service and each user selects the cloud service that satisfies his or her needs. In particular, some users may use more than one cloud services depending on the usage. In order to register the cloud service used by each user with the information processing device, the different service needs to be registered for each user and sometimes more than one services needs to be registered for one user. The registration operation got extremely complex. Also, when the user changes the cloud service that he or she used to use, the information registered with the information processing device needs to be updated every time the user changes the cloud service. The bothersome change operation needs to be made.
Not only for accessing the aforementioned cloud service but also for storing files such as a scan image file generated on information processing device in a specific folder on another device such as the portable information terminal or for producing a printed output on the information processing device based on the file stored on another device such as the portable information terminal, the user needs to input information such as an address to access the specific folder or file into the information processing device. The information should be entered by manual every time the user operates the information processing device to access the specific folder or the file. Again, the bothersome operation needs to be made.
None of the techniques introduced in the documents 1 to 3 solves the above-described problems.